A few weeks ago Stevie Turner kindly nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award. As you can see from her post, if you scroll to the end of the comments you’ll note that I thanked her but said that I didn’t normally do these award things. However, as Stevie is a long time supporter of my blog I said I would give it some thought. Having done so I have decided not to do a proper job of it, but to take it as a prompt in my own way for a different kind of post.

In view of the record-breaking temperatures we have been enjoying/enduring here this week I thought I’d play a few songs with sunshine in their title, and match them by answering some of the questions Stevie asked of her nominees. I’m playing seven tunes today, and answering seven of Stevie’s eleven questions, and I hope this works! In fairness to Stevie I won’t put the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in the right hand column of my site, but will drop it in here in case you haven’t seen it before:

The first question is “Is your cup of life half full or half empty?” I am 72, so I think I could be forgiven for thinking that my best years are probably behind me, but that doesn’t stop me from taking a positive approach to this. I have much in my life for which I am thankful: I was raised by two wonderful parents, who gave me love and support which I returned, and I have two beautiful daughters of my own, and three beautiful granddaughters. So how could my cup of life be anything but half full, if not more full than that? This tune fits that well, I think:

Katrina and the Waves, of course, with Walking on Sunshine. Unlike a regular post, I’m not giving you song info today, as I want to leave room for Stevie’s questions, but I’ve played most of these before anyway, so a visit to the search bar should fill you in!

Stevie’s next question is “Do you believe in an afterlife?” My honest answer is that I am agnostic: I just don’t know. I’d like to think that we continue in some form or another, but have insufficient imagination to comprehend what that might be. As my stepmother is an ordained Church of England vicar you can no doubt picture the interesting family conversations that have been held around that! For a song, at a bit of a stretch, how about this:

Next, I’m addressing Stevie’s “What is one thing you wish for?” This is the one which took me longest to decide on. I went through the usual material stuff, like sufficient money to bequeath to my daughters and their children, but in the end I came back to the, possibly trite, answer that I just wish people would be kinder to each other. I’m not alone in feeling that as a society we have become more unpleasant over the years, taking the lead from politicians who seem to think that being nasty and divisive somehow validates them. It doesn’t, in my view: it just makes them look like small-minded, hateful individuals who shouldn’t be in any positions of power and authority. But if it wins them votes, what do they care? I just want to be able to greet each day with this:

The Beatles with Good Day Sunshine, one of the many classic songs they gave us.

The next one of Stevie’s questions that I’m taking on is “What would you like politicians to ban?” There are many possible responses to this, though I think ‘telling lies’ might be a bit unrealistic. One thing which really needs banning is the ability for donors from outside our country, who don’t even live and vote here, to be allowed to donate huge sums to political parties in an attempt to buy the country. This part of the system is long overdue a reform (but not with a capital R!). I have no particular song for this, so I’m just playing this because I like it:

That was Osibisa with Sunshine Day, a big hit here in the UK. They were a fun band.

Stevie is a big music lover, like me, so it was no surprise that a couple of her questions were music-related. This is the first I’m taking on: “Would you rather go to a music festival where your favourite band is playing, or watch them play on TV instead?” Nowadays, my inability to get to a music festival would determine that for me. Stevie is a regular visitor to the Isle of Wight and has been to the festival there on a number of occasions, as well as to others like the Download Festival. But these have never really held any attraction for me, even in my concert-going days. Back in the Seventies the local council ran a series of free concerts in the town park and we went to a number of them, including coincidentally, Osibisa. We also saw Thin Lizzy. They were great but I always felt there was something lacking: outdoors, the acoustics just weren’t anywhere near as good as in a theatre. One of the musicians I really like is a regular performer at festivals during the summer months, and is gearing up for this year’s season. This is her in a ‘live’ indoor setting:

Elles Bailey, and Sunshine City. I’ve written about Elles several times before, with her incredible background, and I love her music.

The next one of Stevie’s questions is “What would you like to learn?” This is an easy one for me: I’d love to learn to play a musical instrument, given how much I love music, but it seems I’m doomed never to achieve that. Do you remember schooldays, when we all learned to play the recorder? In my case, they gave up, judging that I had no musical ability whatsoever. In hindsight that might feel a little harsh, but to be fair I think they had a point! I think this is how I’d probably be better off spending my time nowadays:

That was Free, with Lying In The Sunshine, despite what the video might say! It’s still a lovely song, though.

Just one more of Stevie’s questions to go now. This one: “Could you dance the cha-cha if your life depended on it?” This may come as no surprise but my dancing abilities are on a par with my musical talent, so if I were in this situation my life might be in danger! Given time and Dianne Buswell to teach me, perhaps I could do well enough to survive, but otherwise it’s a case of “wish me luck as you wave me goodbye!”  Or perhaps I could just do a runner, like these guys:

If you didn’t know them, that was OneRepublic and Sunshine. A fun song with which to round off this piece, I think.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this mix of music and my thoughts. If not, you have Stevie to thank for prompting it! My thanks again to Stevie for nominating me for the award, and I hope I’ve done her justice with the rather oddball way in which I have gone about accepting it.

See you again for Song Lyric Sunday, I trust? It wouldn’t be the same without you 😊